The
following excerpts are from EWTN
News:
When
the Titanic began to sink on April 15, 1912, Father Thomas Byles had
two opportunities to board a lifeboat. But he forewent those
opportunities, according to passengers aboard the sinking ocean
liner, in order to hear confessions and offer consolation and prayers
with those who were trapped aboard.
Now,
a priest at the former church of Fr. Byles in England is asking that
his beatification cause be opened.
Some
1,500 people died when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the
Atlantic Ocean in 1912. Believed at the time to be “unsinkable,”
the ship lacked adequate lifeboats for all the passengers on its
maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.
Fr.
Byles was traveling on the Titanic to preside at his brother’s
wedding in New York. The 42-year-old British priest had been ordained
in Rome 10 years prior and had served as a parish priest at Saint
Helen’s Church in Essex since 1905.
Miss
Agnes McCoy, a third class passenger and survivor of the Titanic,
said Fr. Byles had been on the ship, hearing confessions, praying
with passengers and giving his blessing as the vessel sank.
Read
more by clicking below:
Priest who died on the Titanic could be on path to sainthood :: EWTN News
